latest news SDSU gang rape case: Woman demands results of her rape test

A young woman who accused three former San Diego State football players of gang-raping her at a party last year has yet to receive her rape test results from him. more than 10 months ago or the police report filed the same day, according to his attorney.

Attorney Daniel Gilleon sent a letter Wednesday to the San Diego County District. Atti. Summer Stephan, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit, and members of the San Diego City Council request this information and note that his client is legally entitled to it.

“Please, this is a young girl who was the victim of a gang rape, and she is begging you for the information she is entitled to,” he wrote. “Stop blowing her up and her rights and just give the information – now.”

San Diego police did not respond to questions from The Times about the request or the department’s policy on sharing this information with victims of crime. A department spokesperson said the questions were forwarded to the district attorney’s office, which received the police investigation in early August and is considering whether to file criminal charges. A spokesperson for the office did not answer the question but said the matter was still under investigation.

State law requires police departments to provide information about sexual assault test results — including whether an attacker’s DNA is found — to victims who request it. Departments are also required to provide reports to victims of crime unless doing so would jeopardize the safety of someone involved in the investigation or “the success of the investigation or related investigation.” .

The lawsuit, filed last week, accuses the three football players – including star bettor Matt Araiza – of raping the young woman at an off-campus Halloween party last October when she was a high school student from 17 years. The young woman filed a police report the next day and was given a thorough examination for rape, according to the lawsuit.

Araiza, whose powerful kicks in college earned him the nickname “Punt God”, was drafted by the Buffalo Bills months after the alleged rape. The Bills announced on Saturday that he had been dropped from the team, two days after the lawsuit was filed.

Araiza’s attorney, Kerry Armstrong, said the trial allegations were false and witnesses at the party contradicted his claims.

Gilleon provided the Times with records from a police portal that were shared with his client showing that the tests for his Sexual Assault Response Team examination were completed and returned to the forces of the order on October 27. The recordings do not detail the results.

A Times review of emails and text messages between the young woman and San Diego police shows that she did not immediately receive clear answers about when and how to obtain the records and information. she was looking for.

A detective told her in June that her sergeant did not want the young woman to see her statement so as not to “taint your memory”.

Then in early August, the same detective ordered the young woman to file a registration request in order to obtain the crime report. Her attorney filed a motion on August 19 seeking statements made to police by the young woman and her father, tapes of 10 search warrants that police executed, audio of detective calls recorded between the young woman and the men who, according to the lawsuit, police determined were in the room where the alleged rape occurred.

The police website asks the public to contact the department to confirm if a report is ready for collection seven days after the request.

The detective asked the young woman, now 18, to meet in person to review the results of the rape test – an option her lawyer is wary of, preferring to keep the correspondence documented.

“I’m a bit upset,” the young woman wrote in an email to the detective on Tuesday, a copy of which was provided to The Times. “I had been asking for information about my case for months, including the SART results and my statement, but it wasn’t until the media went crazy that you decided to give me the instructions. Why have you refused my requests in the past, knowing that I had these rights? »